Succulents and More™

I have an update on the greenhouse rat situation ( see this post from two weeks ago). It's short and sweet. The notification from my Wi-Fi- enabled  electronic rat trap says it all: An app for a rat trap is a bit silly, but everything seems to come with an app these days I won't post a photo of the dead rat, but since it died of electric shock, it wasn't bloody or anything. In fact, it looked just like a living rat, except that it wasn't. I'll leave the traps (two electronic traps, one old-fashioned snap trap) in the greenhouse a little while longer, just in case. © Gerhard Bock, 2026. All rights reserved.  To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here .

This past weekend was the 2026 Show & Sale of the Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society (SCSS). To celebrate, my friend and frequent partner-in-crime Kyle Johnson invited the vendors and SCSS board members to an evening get-together in his garden. I didn’t keep track of how many people showed up, but it was a few dozen at least. Most of the locals had seen Kyle’s garden before, but the out-of-town vendors hadn’t. In addition to the general ooh and aahs, I overheard some comments that reflected a deeper connection to what Kyle has created. I’m sure that, as fellow gardeners, you know how validating it is to hear from people who get what you’re trying to do. The photos in this post were taken between 4:30pm and 7:30pm. During those three hours, the light was getting warmer and softer until, boom, it was dark. But Kyle has lights throughout the garden so nobody was stumbling around in the dark. I didn’t quite capture the magic I felt as I was walking around after dark, but I hop...

Twelve years ago, in 2014, I had the opportunity to visit a garden in Portland, Oregon that was so remarkable that it stuck with me all this time. It even had a name: Floramagoria, a portmanteau combining flora and phantasmagoria (according to Merriam-Webster , “an exhibition of optical effects and illusions,” “a constantly shifting complex succession of things seen or imagined,” or “a bizarre or fantastic combination, collection, or assemblage”). Floramagoria was the private space of Craig Quirk and Larry Neill. It was a classic example of a mullet garden — business in the front, party in the back. The front, the public-facing side, featured fairly muted conservative plantings in line with the neighborhood’s architectural character. But once you passed through the gate into the backyard, boy howdy: What an explosion of exotic plants, bold colors, and eclectic art! To see for yourself, check out my blog post from 2015, Loree’s post from 2019, and especially this detailed (and beaut...